University of Texas at Austin Receives $400,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for Classical Music Programming

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $400,000 to Texas Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. This funding will allow Texas Performing Arts to further develop classical music programming and participation activities that have been underwritten by The Mellon Foundation since their initial $450,000 award in 2011.

These funds, distributed over three years, will directly support interdisciplinary programming that features the UT Symphony Orchestra and the UT Wind Ensemble. The grant will also support extended artist residencies with So Percussion, eighth blackbird, and the Kronos Quartet; the commission of new works by faculty composers Yevgeniy Sharlat and Donald Grantham; and a co-commission with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus by Pultizer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts.

"We are deeply grateful for this renewed support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation," says Texas Performing Arts Director and Associate Dean Kathy Panoff. "It will enable us to continue the efforts to inspire our growing community to appreciate classical music as a living, breathing, vibrant, and ever-changing organism that has a remarkable capacity to respond to the needs of a fast-paced and progressive city like Austin."

Texas Performing Arts
Situated on the main campus of one of the largest and most prestigious research universities in the country, Texas Performing Arts serves The University of Texas at Austin campus and the Austin community at large through a diverse season of world-class fine arts performances, educational activities, and collaborative partnerships.
Texas Performing Arts presents an international season of music, theatre, dance, and conversation in our multiple venues, as well as the best in touring Broadway productions and concert attractions. As a university-based arts center it is also committed to serving the academic mission of the College of Fine Arts by supporting the work of our students, faculty and staff on our stages, classrooms, studios and production shops; and in the educational outreach programs it provides for the Austin community.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation currently makes grants in five core program areas: Higher Education and Scholarship; Scholarly Communications; Museums and Art Conservation; Performing Arts; and Conservation and the Environment. Within each of its core programs, the Foundation concentrates most of its grant making in a few areas. Institutions and programs receiving support are often leaders in fields of Foundation activity, but they may also be promising newcomers, or in a position to demonstrate new ways of overcoming obstacles to achieve program goals. The grant making philosophy is to build, strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities. As such, The Mellon Foundation develops thoughtful, long-term collaborations with grant recipients and invests sufficient funds for an extended period to accomplish the purpose at hand and achieve meaningful results.

The Foundation's Performing Arts Program provides multi-year grants on an invitation-only basis to a small number of leading orchestras, theater companies, opera companies, modern dance companies, and presenters based in the United States. The Foundation seeks to support institutions that contribute to the development and preservation of their art form, provide creative leadership in solving problems or addressing issues unique to the field, and which present the highest level of institutional performance. Grants are awarded on the basis of artistic merit and leadership in the field, and concentrate on achieving long-term results. Special consideration is also given to programs supporting generative artists-US composers, playwrights, choreographers, and artist-led theatrical ensembles.

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